


Clean Up

by Kalgalen



Series: Scalpel AU [3]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, F/M, Scalpel AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 17:44:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2516354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalgalen/pseuds/Kalgalen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He just loved being with her, afterward, as they washed the knives and cleaned up the safe room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clean Up

He just loved being with her, afterward, as they washed the knives and cleaned up the safe room.

Grey always insisted on disinfecting her tools, more because she liked order than by fear of leaving incriminating DNA on the instruments. Locus had never met anybody with such a fondness for blades - with the exception of Felix, whose fascination for close-combat weapons dangerously verged on obsession. Emily treated her tools with care, and maybe a bit of affection, but that was all they were: tools.

Emily was changing the blade of one of her lancets (a number 10, she had told him while tracing a deep cut in their victim's chest, used for small incisions in skin and muscle), singing softly to herself a tune he didn't know, in a language he didn't recognize.

To be fair, Emily Grey was still a mystery to him. Locus couldn't fathom why a talented medical specialist, who could without any doubt work as a surgeon in the biggest hospitals of the country, chose instead to take a low-paying pathologist job at a local hospital - and to murder some people on the side. Felix's motivation was money and the feeling of power he got from holding another person's life at the tip of his knife. What was hers?

Locus set the mop he was using to wipe the blood off the tile floor and turned to Emily.

"Miss Grey? Can I ask you a question?"

Holding the reassembled scalpel at eye level, she threw him a quick glance.

"Please, call me Emily. We're friends, right?"

Locus had a split-second of hesitation. He liked her, but she was teaching him how to dissect live human beings. His notion of normality had gotten blurry during the past few months, but he was sure that was not how friends spent time together.

Nonetheless, he nodded.

"Yes. Friends."

Emily smiled at him, a soft, genuine smile, and he swallowed, hard. Locus didn't fell in love. Ever. And he wasn't sure what to do with the warm feeling spreading in his chest every time the doctor paid him any sort of attention.

"Well, go on. What was your question?" she asked, examining the edge of her scalpel under the table lamp.

"Why do you kill?"

She froze a second, obviously thinking about the answer she was going to give. Then, slowly, she turned to him, tilting her head on the side.

"It's... not about _killing_. Killing for the pleasure of killing is for animals - or for people like Felix. It's not a bad thing," she added quickly when she noticed his frown. "Keeping contact with one's primal instincts is a talent. But I'm a scientist. I want to know how people work. I want to know their limits, what make them crack physically and mentally. I'm driven by curiosity. You are too, I know it."

Locus didn't answer. He didn't really have the occasion to analyze what killing made him feel; the first time had been an accident, and he mostly remembered panic, a shot of excitement coursing through his body, and a surprising absence of guilt. Emily and Felix hadn't let him wrap up any of the jobs they invited him to so far. How would it feel to murder for the only reason that he was bored, or curious? How would it feel to be like the scalpel between Emily's fingers, a weapon with no other motivation than to be used for what it had been designed for? How would it feel to kill simply because he was good at it?

Those were some questions to think about if he was going to continue meeting with them.

Locus picked up the mop, and got back to work.

"Thank you."

Emily settled the no.10 in her toolbox and picked up a no.16 encrusted with blood.

"Anytime, sweetheart."


End file.
